Wireless Private Circuit Saves the Day for San Francisco Radio Station

The Problem

Barry Silberstein of Evolution Consulting came to Etheric with a tricky connectivity problem for his client, a large radio network that needed to connect the two towers that serve its San Francisco station, The first tower in nearby Brisbane already had an AT&T layer 2 network in place. The second tower, however, was located about 5 miles away, atop a hill overlooking Candlestick Point. Formerly the site of a sports and event stadium, the area was now largely residential and had no fiber service.

The station needed a strong and secure network connection between these towers, and was not able to get it. Barry worked with AT&T for months to find a solution. Ultimately, the recommendation was to bring fiber to the site, a lengthy and complicated project that would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. This not being a viable option, Barry started searching for wireless options, hoping to find something that would provide the bandwidth his client needed at a reasonable cost. Having partnered on projects with Etheric Networks before, Barry reached out for advice.

The Solution

The Etheric network design team recommended an Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL) circuit. This is a high-speed virtual point-to-point network link that is delivered wirelessly, with minimal packet loss and very low latency. Two powerful radio antennas precisely aligned create a powerful connection that is just as strong, and considerably less vulnerable, than fiber. The circuit was up and running two days after the initial survey. Being able to quickly and easily achieve the connectivity they needed was a huge relief for Barry and his client, who thought that fiber was going to be their only option. The station only required 100 Mbps speeds for this circuit, but with the right equipment, a wireless EVPL connected to a fiber backbone can deliver speeds of 10 Gbps or more.

The Result

The Etheric EVPL has worked great, with no downtime since installation. My client is very satisfied, and I would not hesitate to recommend this kind of solution again. I’ve always counted on Etheric to bring internet to hard-to-reach places, and appreciated that they already had access points on both of the towers my client needed to connect. Installation was so easy and quick – pretty refreshing after what we’d been through. Thanks Etheric, you saved the day!